Pond is the first collection of a promising young Irish author, The book is difficult to classify. Unlike anything I've ever read before, it's much more than the story of a bucolic everyday existence I was promised by multiple online reviews. Pond is a bizarre text that gives space to the meandering thoughts of a young woman. Cleaning a toaster oven, the narrator contemplates literature, for example. It isn't in the harmless daily tasks—chopping vegetables, texting a lover when the moon is full—but in the wandering asides that something special can be found. Bennett's digressions are meaningful, dynamic, fluent, and, in the end, are where the book's strength truly lies.